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Comment Re:Hardware partner (Score 1) 880

Having had to adjust to Vista and Windows 7, I don't feel too bold in saying that switching from Windows to Linux with Gnome 2 or Gnome 3 wouldn't be a stretch for anyone. Windows typically frustrates me, the new Office Ribbon whatever crap is HORRIBLE, etc.

I keep seeing this, yet I haven't personally experienced this frustration (and I use the hell out of Excel every day.) Initially, yes, I was annoyed that I couldn't find what I was looking for within the menus. Then I noticed by accident that 99% of the old (i.e. 2003) keyboard shortcuts still work -- they're just not advertised. Alt+E+S still brings up Paste Special, Alt+D+F+F still applies auto-filter, Alt+I+W still inserts a new worksheet, &c. The only real frustration I've had is that some of my macros needed some QA during the conversion and pasting pictures of graphs into PowerPoint is pretty ugly.

I can't comment on Word because we don't really use it in my office, but I'd gladly gain the extra functionality in Excel (multi-threading (huge win for me!), data sets greater than 65K rows, increased memory limits, the list goes on) for the little bit of frustration that I've experienced.

Comment As much as I want to promote my Alma Mater... (Score 1) 185

The site seems to be a waste of energy when alternative sources exist with a much greater volume of activity. The prime example that comes to my mind is the Iowa Electronic Markets. I understand the Big Ten rivalry, but why reinvent the wheel? Do they honestly expect to get valuable commentary in conjunction with the votes?

Comment Re:As always ... legalize it and tax it. (Score 1) 448

I actually wonder about the economics of this.

One would need to create all kinds of new laws, regulations, and enforcement agencies.. none of which would be particularily cheap.

We (the United States) already have one, it's called the ATF. I'm not sure about our Mexican cousins, however.

On a sidenote, Wikipedia states that the US consumed about 300 tonnes of cocaine in 2010. This bust accounts for 2 days worth of cocain consumption in the US this year.

Comment Re:Netflix (Score 2) 713

I disagree. My suspicion is that most people would rather put up with the slightly slower service and the customers who feel that this will impact their experience will add another disc to their plan. Chances are it's a minority of Netflix customers who watch more than one or two discs per week. The one-per-week customers will not have a real impact to their experience.

Comment Re:No FLAC on iPod (Score 1) 526

Even amongst audiophiles, how many people really get anything out of having lossless on portable music devices? I know there is a hardy subset who travels with professional grade headsets and headphone amps, but do any of them use iDevices? From the last time I peaked into the audiophile world, pretty much ALL portable devices were scorned...

When PMP's have up to 64GB of storage, the issue is more about convenience than quality. I'd rather be able to drag&drop my flac files than have to convert from flac to another codec or maintain two libraries of music.

Comment Re:Correlation is not causation (Score 1) 205

The rise of mobile devices with less DRAM in them is more likely to blame: less people are buying new PCs and Laptops when their phones and/or tablets can do everything they need.

The more likely theory is that computers continue to live longer and have reached the point of "good enough" that end users do not feel compelled to replace a working, 6 year old computer.

Comment Re:RTFD Read The Fucking Decision (Score 1) 240

I'll grant you the notion that the pretense for this software is immaterial, largely because the lessee does not have any way of knowing when the software is being used (e.g. if the defendent has an employee who is using said software maliciously.) However, your first point is invalid for the following reasoning:

Cameras can take pictures of the person using the computer. Those pictures can be provided to law enforcement, who should be able to compare said pictures to photographs in their records (e.g. DMV, prison systems, government employee databases, etc.)

Comment Re:Google Plus (Score 1) 187

Makes sense to me. Unlike Facebook, G+ allows anyone with an account to follow Linus's public posts without him having to accept them as his "friends".

It's perfect for this type of announcement. It's Twitter for those who felt constrained by the character limit.

What happened to mailing lists?

Comment Re:Short that stock (Score 1) 93

Never bet against human stupidity.

Largely because you may not have enough cash to wait it out. Many fund managers were shorting companies like Pets.com back during '98-00, but had to take substantial losses because they didn't have enough collateral to wait until the share prices reversed and headed toward $0.

Comment They're not alone in this effort (Score 3, Informative) 35

Nokia has been working on this since at least 2009, just search for their Kamppi trial. I know that it's fashionable to knock Nokia on many things, but they do (or is it did?) work on some very fore-front things.

Somebody else created a similar application for his Nokia phones:
http://www.techalps.com/nokia/any-minnesota-readers-please-give-this-mall-of-america-app-a-try.html

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